Musings.

I love SG-1 to death. It's so deliciously campy at first, and pays homage to great sci-fi endeavors before it in its 100th episode.

Oh. It is 2011.

Well, I realize now that orchids are semi-uneventful, and that I am a *terrible* person at cataloging things in my own room. Laboratory environments I can do, stuff living in my room not so much.

The house is badly insulated and the parental units resist central heating, and to be honest, with living in the south Bay Area, it's not a highly essential part of life. However this resulted in some unhappiness from the 'chids and myself. The dendrobium I bought in the summer is losing its leaves, and I sort of, um, took out all the sphagnum moss in the pot it came in, so it's sitting bare rooted and slightly moist in its own pot. While most of the roots appear to be somewhere between 'meh' and 'eh', there are some which are plump and full-looking. So sometime this weekend I will put it in bark and support the canes.

I have a phal which I've been griping about since August, but as it hasn't kicked the bucket, I thought I would try my luck with another phal. A mistake, as some sort of bacterial infection, or crown rot, has overtaken that plant, but that could have been my mistake in picking an already diseased plant. The current phal that is desperately clinging to life appears to not have any viable roots, slightly shriveled leaves, and is potted in styrofoam and small bark pieces. But it seems to be trying to come back; there are little green nubs that look like new roots, but I can't be certain.

My oncidiums are actually liking the weather apparently! A NoID from Safeway rebloomed off another pseudobulb. It seems to be from Matsui Nursery, and looks like the 'Massai Red', but I'd rather not assume. I digress from the whole wistful ID thing. The plant itself looks moderately healthy, with shriveling in the pseudobulbs but with new growth and new roots forming! I would assume--drat, stupid word--that the shriveling is due to the flower spike and the lack of roots from my abysmal wintery conditions/repot. But I'm thankful that there's growth!

My yellow NoID oncidium is also sending out new growth, but new roots are nonexistent and the old roots are much finer looking than the previously mentioned oncidium. Not sure, but hoping that bulbs form.

My self-ID'ed Miltoniopsis is sending out new growth and I think new roots! So I repotted it in the hopes of getting it out of the media it was bought in. I picked it up on a bargain shelf with the flowers looking rather unhappy, so I was hesitant to do anything to it. Hopefully the repotting wasn't a bad idea...

Bought a Mtdm Ruffles 'Scent of a Woman' last month due to the name. Suspecting fragrance, I took a sniff, and lo and behold, a wonderful smell from the blooms. Of course, I took it home from Trader Joe's and the blooms all fell off from the cold, but the plant looks ok! I hope. :(

My Darwinara Charm is looking unhappy, the woman I bought it from has sort of berated me on not giving it the proper light requirements, but as it gets warmer and the days grow longer, we'll see what I can do. The roots have mostly rotted off, but hopefully the new media and pruning job I did will help...

And that's all for my long-winded post for tonight!

New habitats!

Well, I'm out of the Davis area, back to the South Bay Area. It's definitely a lot cooler in my house here than up there. I wonder how my orchids will fare. They're currently in a few different rooms that my parents stuck them in, but I'll be moving them shortly.

I also found some half dead bamboo shoots growing in a mucky glass vase with marbles and stones in it. I cleaned it up by getting rid of a lot of the algal growth and mineral residue, and stuck the roots back in. The shoots look pretty dried out, so I'm wondering if a slit into the bottom will allow more water in? Or maybe I can instigate more root growth with some of the rooting hormone I have.

And I'll be posting pictures of my poor babies soon, the move from point A to point B has been tiresome and horrific.

Orchid killer.

I've been highly suspicious of my Phal's soft, wilting leaves for a little while now, but only today did I pull it up and look at the roots. They're pretty shriveled and dead, so I guess that's another phal I've killed by repotting. Now I'm sure it's the repotting, because the plant was thriving and healthy when I bought it. I seem to have issues with repotting in general, but I can't stand to keep them in the moss...Oh the conundrum.

I drenched it in a bit of water, but as I'm moving out shortly, I don't want to do anything too cumbersome; I suppose my baby can wait a little longer. I did cut off an isolated root surrounded by death, and put that in a clear plastic bag with some water. Maybe that will force growth and photosynthesis.

In other news, I have another paph from my roommate! It's not a NoID, but I can't fully read the tag, as it's been worn. My parents are not pleased that they will have to help me transport them.

A blog? Really?

I've been very much against blogs, but I think the road to killing my NoID (no identification, aka no parental history) orchid collections deserves some cataloging. Afterall, if it's on the Internet, it will exist in some form forever, right?

I currently have 9 orchids, 8 of which are NoIDs. They're all an assorted mix of genera, so that will make the experience of keeping them alive even more...interesting. A couple of them I bought without any tags whatsoever, and I've tentatively identified their genera, but I'm afraid I'm not good enough to conclusively figure some of them out (I'm looking at you miltonia and miltoniopsis).

The plants were bought from assorted locations, but I have the sinking suspicion that most of them originate from the same breeder/nursery. The largest mass production orchid nursery in California that I've seen is either Matsui Nursery, Inc. or Rocket Farms. I've seen orchids tagged with one or the other at varying stores (Safeway, Costco, Trader Joe's, etc.), with a few being tagged from somewhere called 'Salinas Orchids', whose defunct Geocities website reeks of a 90's company acquired by another larger company, with the tags retained over time. Nevertheless, they're good at positively identifying the genus of the plant, serving their bare minimum purpose.

So the goal? To keep them alive for at least a year, and to instigate new growth. The ultimate goal would be to propagate some of the newer growth into its own pot, and to force/coax new flower spikes in a year or so.

But I have the tendency to overwater and baby these suckers (but hey, it's summer, and they need more water right...?), so we'll see.

I think the only solution is to buy so many, that I have no time to water them. Neglect is wonderful for these things.